Biotic Regulation: Topics

Energetics of individual organisms and ecological communities

The biotic regulation concept predicts that natural ecological communities of species should be organized in a manner ensuring their
maximum environmental stability. This general principle allows to explain major allometric patterns of distribution of energy fluxes observed
at the level individual organisms, biological species and natural ecological communities.

One of the main findings is that, independent of their body size, all living organisms, from bacteria to whales, work to keep their
mass-specific metabolic power within universal limits near the metabolic optimum of 1-10 W/kg
(Горшков, 1981, Makarieva et al., 2008).
This result opposes the common mechanistic view on the living matter, according to which biological features of the living organisms
are shaped by their external environment, to which they presumably have to continuously adapt. Instead, our studies show that living organisms
are able to overcome the physical limitations imposed on them by their environment and their own physical properties, maintaining optimal,
preferred biochemical characteristics (in this case, mass-specific metabolic rate). As is demonstrated by other studies, they can also exert
a stabilising impact on their immediate environment. In the modern biological paradigm the complexity of living organisms and their
environmental abilities are practically ignored.

Another important pattern is that
in stable ecosystems large animals are allowed to consume no more than 1% of primary production.
In the modern biosphere man has exceeded this ecological quota by ten times
(Горшков, 1980, 1981,
Makarieva et al., 2004).

Fluctuations of population densities of heterotrophs lead to fluctuations of ecosystem energy flows and biomass. Thus, the stability
principle demands that animal population densities must be kept within the corridor of ecological sustainability.
This can be achieved via genetic encoding the territorial requirements of animals at the species level.
(Makarieva et al., 2005).
We present evidence in support of the statement that animals are biologically organized to occupy exclusive home range
areas where no conspecific intruders are normally tolerated, this being a major mechanism of animal population numbers control in natural ecosystems.
Applied to humans, this means that the need/right for a fairly large territory to be controlled by the individual is one of the most
essential human needs/rights, as biologically indispensable as are, for example, the need/right for food and water.

Modelling is widely spread in modern natural science. Models differ from theories in that they include immeasurable parameters and unknown
dependencies between measurable variables. These dependencies have therefore to be postulated, which is commonly done by fitting the model
to the available empirical data. Thus, models are in their essence equivalent to tabulations of relevant data having zero predictive power.
The modelling approach where the search for fundamental natural regularities is replaced by formal fitting and computer simulations represents
a serious, if not deadly, disease of modern natural science. We illustrate the above statements on the example of a popular ontogenetic growth model,
which, among other things, violates the energy conservation law (Makarieva et al., 2004).

Makarieva A.M., Gorshkov V.G., Li B.-L. (2005) Gigantism, temperature and metabolic rate in terrestrial poikilotherms. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Biological Series, 272, 2325-2328. Abstract.doi:10.1098/rspb.2005.3223. Copyright 2005 The Royal Society. Further reproduction or electronic distribution is not permitted.

Makarieva A.M., Gorshkov V.G., Li B.-L. (2005) Energetics of the smallest: Do bacteria breathe at the same rate as whales? Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Biological Series, 272, 2219-2224. Abstract.doi:10.1098/rspb.2005.3225. Copyright 2005 The Royal Society. Further reproduction or electronic distribution is not permitted.